It's morning on the day after a very tough election night. I'm exhausted and yet convinced that I -- and all the volunteers who worked on Dem campaigns -- left little or nothing on the table. Virginia Republicans have every right to crow this morning. They handed us our behinds -- gift wrapped.
Kos' analysis is spot on, but it's only part of the story. Given a choice between Republicans and Democrats who seem to be humane versions of Republicans (and who they suspect are really true Dems just posing for votes), voters tend to choose Republicans, at least here in Virginia.
But there is more to it.
Virginia Republicans, especially the most conservative of them, were stung by Barack Obama's victory here last year and frightened of the change it represented. Regardless of whether Obama actually changes anything in terms of policy or legislation, his mere existence as president was taken as a threat to the established order in Virginia. Fear motivated much of the GOP turnout.
Health care hurt the Democratic effort in Virginia, in at least two ways.
First, the idiotic town hall spectacles fueled the fear in the Republican camp and the dithering and delaying and maneuvering by the White House and Congress demoralized Democrats who worked so hard last year to get a Democratic majority and a Democrat in the White House.
And second, at a key moment over the summer, when Democratic campaigns were organizing and recruiting volunteers, raising money and getting the message out to the grass roots, Organizing for America, Move On, Democracy for America, SEIU (and others) decided it was time to take some of the oxygen out of the Virginia campaigns by asking their supporters to canvass, make phone calls and write letters in support of the health care effort. Many of those volunteers (maybe most) never came back to us.
Finally, at least in Northern Virginia, there was a fatigue factor (the 2008 campaign drained us all) and more than a little complacency, as if 2008 settled it all. We know better now and --after a rest -- it's time to rebuild.
I hope we've learned some lessons.